QVC launches on Sky Glass and Sky Stream, chooses Simplestream to power live streaming

London, 18/07/2023 - QVC, the leading video commerce retailer founded in the United States and operating in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Japan, has successfully launched its linear TV channels on Sky Glass and Sky Stream, promoting a range of categories and products. Included in Sky’s 600 channels range, four new QVC HD channels have been launched on the platform: QVC HD, QVC Style HD, QVC Beauty HD, and QVC Extra HD. The offering is the first in the video commerce genre to surface on the brand new Sky streaming services.

Already a customer of Simplestream, QVC chose the London-headquartered, leading technology vendor to power live stream encoding, playout and distribution within the parameters set for Sky Glass. The service allows end-users to consume content without a satellite dish and simply through a Wi-Fi connection.

In particular, the solution encompasses:

• Ingest, manipulation, and distribution of SRT live streams for HD quality.
• Service-wide redundancy with dual input, dual encode and dual output with automated failover to reduce downtime.
• The addition of Sky-specific technologies into the stream, such as manifest timecodes and Dolby Digital audio.

Simplestream’s Technical Director, Ashley Horne, highlighted:

“It’s great to be able to help one of our existing customers reach a new platform, especially one that is focused on high-quality content distributed over IP. The fact that services like Sky Glass and Sky Stream are now considered as a key means to reach audiences marks a significant step forward and a tangible moment of change in the market”.

The launch of QVC‘s channels on Sky Glass represents yet another milestone for Simplestream. Media Manager – the proprietary modular backend to manage content for distribution – already provides syndication of channels to partners such as YouTube and Xumo, as well as numerous compliant feeds over MRSS, XML, JSON, and API. Sky Glass adds a new distribution partner to this list and further enhances Simplestream’s reach to assist its customers engage with a globally distributed audience.